‘I think so. He will be identified by one of the attendants in the car-park at Dantwylch once his photograph is shown around by the police, and he will certainly be identified by the Whites.’
‘I can’t imagine why the Whites don’t seem to have heard the rumpus when Knight and Vittorio had that scrap and wrecked the bedroom.’
‘The bungalows are detached and I doubt whether the fight was as noisy as you think. There was no wardrobe to topple over and crash down and a good deal of the fighting seems to have taken the form of a wrestling-match on the bed.’
‘What do you think happened to Vittorio’s clothes?’
‘I think the clothes have been wrapped around a boulder, tied on with string, and are now at the bottom of Loch Linnhe. You know, Laura, a pleasant thought strikes me. I should like to take up a hobby.’
‘I thought your work was your hobby. Anyway, occasionally you collect things, although sooner or later you get rid of them.’
‘You are thinking not of me but of Basil Honfleur, whose collector’s mania led to his undoing. The acquisitive instinct, like most other instincts, shows a side of man’s baser nature. One should not wish to accumulate.’
She waved a yellow claw at the collector’s items she had received in exchange for her platters.
‘Well, you’ve put Adam and Eve and the serpent behind you. What more do you want?’ asked Laura.
‘One should work with one’s hands, as Adam and Eve did,’ replied Dame Beatrice. ‘When our coach tour is over, I think I shall carve a few love-spoons.’
—«»—«»—«»—
[scanned anonymously in a galaxy far far away]
[A 3S Release— v1, html]
[March 19, 2007]
